For don't know what reason, today is the first time I feel grateful being stuck in heavy traffic (or maybe just for today) and through this, I do a self-reflection and asking myself why I feel that way.
We'd been through 19 months of lockdown due to pandemic here in Malaysia. Since the first lockdown, traffic had been much lesser as compared to usual. Yeah, at some times I did enjoy the smooth traffic because I still drove out once a while either for work or for grocery shopping.
Today is the first day my wife resumes back to work in office. Fetching her to work and back from work, there will always be heavy traffic because her workplace is in the city center. Today when I go through the heavy traffic, instead of feeling the packed roads, I feel that the city is alive!
See, this had been happening before the pandemic - the heavy traffic but yea we went through that almost everyday because that was the norm. We complained about the heavy traffic and we actually made ourselves more frustrated. Today's feeling is totally opposite because I feel that "C'mon man, this city is back alive as it is before!"
Sometimes, we take things for granted, not appreciating them when they are actually around us all the time but only come to a realization when all those things are taken away from us. In life, I think it is good to always remind yourself to be grateful and appreciate everything in life.
To start off, always be grateful and appreciate yourself! This is something that we always look down on - belittling the power of being grateful and appreciative of yourself. Focus on what God has given you and not enlarging what is the thing that you lack of.
Of course, there are many other things to be grateful of and sometimes we really need put this in mind and just remind ourselves of these. Eventually, this will change the way we look things. For example, the traffic jam that I mentioned above. :)